Foundation Projects

Your Charitable Gifts at Work at MHS

Memorial Health Foundation is constantly working to provide financial support that benefits Memorial Health System and the overall health of our community. Your donations can be beneficial in a number of ways, either through supporting the Foundation’s designated funds, our specific wish list of projects, or a selected department or affiliate of the health system. All gifts to the Foundation are tax deductible.

Foundation Initiatives

Impact the Cure

Impact the Cure, the annual breast cancer awareness 5k run and 2 mile fun walk, was a great success in 2015 thanks to the community support. It is hosted by Impact Sports and Fitness, Memorial Health System, and Memorial Health Foundation. Each year, funds are raised for a cause related to breast cancer. Funds raised in 2016 will be used to support breast cancer services to include free mammography services for uninsured in Dickinson County.

Music and Memory

Music plays an integral part in our memory. The Music and Memory program provides iPods with personalized playlists to residents and patients of Village Manor and our R.O.S.E. Unit. (Rehabilitation of Special Elderly.) Music therapy is especially beneficial for those suffering from Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Listening to familiar and calming music can decrease agitation, lower stress levels and improve cognition in many patients. The program began being utilized at Memorial Health System in 2014 after receiving a grant and start up donations. Funds donated today will be used to continue and expand the use of the program through the purchase of iPods and music for residents. Donations of gently used iPods, charging cords, new headphones and iTunes cards are also always accepted. Music and Memory is a national program and more information can be found at www.musicandmemory.org about the benefits and studies.

Safe Sleep Fund

Memorial Health Foundation and Memorial Health System are committed to making babies in our community as safe as possible in their sleep environment through the Safe Sleep Fund. Since 1998, Cribs for Kids has been making an impact on the rates of babies dying of accidental, sleep-related death due to unsafe sleeping environments. Every year in the U.S. there are over 3,500 infant sleep-related deaths due to accidental suffocation, strangulation or undetermined causes during sleep. The Foundation and Health System are partnering with Cribs for Kids to prevent these deaths by educating parents and caregivers on the importance of practicing safe sleep for infants, and by providing Graco Pack-n-Play portable cribs and a HALO Sleepsack wearable blanket to families, who, otherwise cannot afford a safe place for their babies to sleep.

A donation of $50 to the Foundation’s Safe Sleep Fund will buy a pack-n-play portable crib and larger donations will enable us to also provide local families with a sleepsack wearable blanket. These donations will benefit families that deliver at Memorial Health System’s Birthing Center. For more information on the Cribs for Kids national program go to www.cribsforkids.org.

Transportation Fund

The Transportation Fund is a program started and supported by the MHS Service Excellence Committee and the employees of the health system. Employees hold quarterly bake sales, along with other activities, to fund bus vouchers for the City of Abilene’s General Public Transportation bus. These vouchers can be used to provide transportation to and from medical appointments, both at MHS and other medical appointments in town.

Memorial Brick Project

The Memorial Health System Courtyard is a place of serenity and comfort, and where the memorial bricks symbolize the lasting legacy of people and their impact on our lives. You can choose to honor or memorialize a loved one, a caregiver, a parent, a spouse, or child with a gift that lasts by donating an engraved commemorative brick.

For more information about purchasing a Memorial Brick, please call the Foundation at 785-263-6688.

Foundation Wish List

Health care is constantly changing and Memorial Health Foundation provides support to Memorial Health System for evolving technology, equipment, and facility needs. The Foundation’s current wish list includes:

MHS Equipment and Technology

3D Mammography machine

Staxi Medical Chairs- durable, space conserving wheelchairs

Golf cart- to be used for patient transport and events

Hydroworks therapy pool- to be used for rehabilitative and therapeutic programs